25 major work stoppages in 2019 involving 425,500 workers

There were 25 major work stoppages in 2019, each involving 1,000 workers or more and lasting at least one shift. That was the largest number of major work stoppages since 2001. Between 2010 and 2019 there were 154 work stoppages, an average of 15 stoppages a year.

There were 425,500 workers involved in major work stoppages that began in 2019. More than three-fifths of idled workers (270,000) were in the educational services industry, which had 13 work stoppages. The average number of workers involved in work stoppages between 2010 and 2019 was 147,660; the largest number of workers involved was 485,200 in 2018.

In 2019 the largest stoppage by lost workdays was the dispute between General Motors (GM) and the United Automobile Workers, which involved 46,000 workers. The work stoppage began on September 16, 2019, and spanned for 29 working days. It resulted in a loss of 1,334,000 work days. Since 1993, there have been 22 work stoppages involving GM. The GM dispute beginning in 2019 was the fifth largest in terms of number of workers involved and second largest in terms of lost workdays. The largest GM stoppage occurred in 1998 and involved 152,200 workers and over 3 million work days lost.

These data are from the Work Stoppages program. To learn more, see “Major Work Stoppages in 2019.” Major work stoppages include both worker-initiated strikes and employer-initiated lockouts that involve 1,000 or more workers and last at least one shift. Days idle are calculated by multiplying the number of workers involved in the strike or lockout by the number of days workers are off the job, based on a 5-day workweek excluding federal holidays.